Wojciech, Robin, Mikel, Tomas, Andrey and Arsenal make big profit.

Greetings, salutations and awkward just-where-do-I-put-my-hands? hugs to each one of you.

Today is a news bonanza, and it’s been a pleasure to read through uplifting and happy stories instead of the interminable anti-Arsenal dross the papers serve up with such jolly disregard when things go awry – although, some have tried focusing more on the defensive frailties. I guess they’re just as bitter as the Spurs fans that we steamrollered the media darlings and their cockney messiah.

I’ll begin with some of the players. Having recently, and surprisingly, buggered off for the comfort of his home land, Andrey Arshavin has explained his reasoning behind the departure. I can understand, what I have trouble grasping is the decision to move him on in February. However, with Tomas Rosicky newly-found bounding ebullience, I’m not so sure the little Russian will be missed all that much.

With the epic saga of Robin’s contract set to rumble on through the entire summer, Mikel Arteta and Wojciech Szczsney have dropped a few hints about the likelihood of our mercurial Dutchman signing on the dotted line – reported to be a signature that could pocket him a whopping £150,000 per week, an offer that’ll comfortably see Robin never going without a Pot Noodle for the rest of his life. Perhaps thumping those grubby reprobates on Sunday has instilled a blind optimism in me, but I’m swaying gently towards him staying.

Arsenal certainly have the funds to increase his pay by that amount. In a story on Sky Sports News:

The sale of Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri has helped Arsenal to post a sizeable pre-tax profit for the six months through to the end of November 2011.

The club announced that they made £49.5m during this period, which was a huge improvement on the £6.1m loss they suffered over the same six months in 2010.

In the same piece, chairman Peter Hill-Wood and chief executive Ivan Gazidas went on to say:

“We are proud of Arsenal’s record and consistency over many seasons.
“We have the foundations in place, at every level of the club, to ensure we remain a force in the seasons ahead.

“We have a healthy cash balance of £115m for the half year.
“But it’s important to understand that not all that money is available to invest in transfers.

“We have running costs of the club, player salaries and so on, so that amount goes down during the year.
“We also have to keep something in reserve in case things don’t go our way.

“There is money available, we don’t talk about an exact figure – and there’s a very good reason why we don’t put an exact figure on that – because it would impact on our negotiating position.”

The last part is especially interesting. Given the variety of figures brandished about that claim to be the amount in Arsene’s ‘war-chest’, keeping that figure away from the limelight does make sense, but only to an extent. Surely announcing a massive profit is going have a similar impact? Clubs we intend to do business with may not know the full means of our wealth, but they will be fully aware that we have some. Regardless, it does offer hope for reinforcements, and if we play as well for the rest of the season as we did on Sunday, there could very well be a sizeable lump of Champions League money to add to the pot.

That’s yer lot folks. Knowing myself, tomorrow’s post will contain a lengthy moan about international football and how pointless the friendlies are. Thanks for reading, you beautiful bastards. Take a moment to comment below and follow my Twitter account – @_ArmchairGooner.

I thought I’d leave you today with this link to my favourite tweet from a Spurs fan. Can’t see the wood for the trees, can they…